


Sun Fever

by TheHomestuckWhovian



Series: Nebulous [1]
Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Angst, Flashbacks, Friendship, Gen, Illnesses, Major Illness, Minor Adora/Catra (She-Ra), Near Death, Poor Catra (She-Ra), Scorpia and Entrapta are too good for the Horde
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-15
Updated: 2019-01-19
Packaged: 2019-10-10 11:05:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 11,718
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17424692
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheHomestuckWhovian/pseuds/TheHomestuckWhovian
Summary: Catra has never been sick before, but when she gets what seems like a cold, she just assumes it'll be fine and attempts to carry on.But nothing is ever that simple, and it's a good thing she has Scorpia and Entrapta at her side





	1. Flu-like Symptoms

**Author's Note:**

> So...I have a plan for this story...and it is gonna be a thing.

Catra started coughing a week after the attempted invasion of Bright Moon.

If she was any other Horde soldier, Catra would have simply shrugged it off and gone off to hide from anyone who could potentially have given her orders (not that anyone other than Hordak could do that now). But Catra paused for a moment after the occasional coughs became a coughing fit, thankfully while she was alone.

She had never been sick, all her life. Adora had gotten sick plenty of times, but something about Catra had kept her from suffering the same fate. Which had worked out too well for the two of them to question as kids (because that meant they could hang out without worrying about Catra catching whatever Adora had), and as teens Adora guessed it was probably because of her differing physiology, since she was the only one here who wasn't like Adora or Rogelio, but Catra still hadn't cared because it meant that even with Adora sick she didn't have to sleep alone in her bunk-

Okay. She was definitely sick if she was thinking this much about Adora without stopping herself like five thoughts ago.

She tilted her head at the wall, mulling over it a bit, before shrugging. "Whatever."

Maybe she just had a good immune system and was due for a cold. Nothing that weird about it.

* * *

"You okay, Boss?" Scorpia asked when Catra came in to check on Entrapta. "You look exhausted."

"It's-" She let out a rough cough, and her throat was starting to feel like she had swallowed dry sand and every clang against the metal was making her head pound. Ugh, this was the worst. "It's nothing."

"Um, that didn't sound like nothing. Are you sick?"

She was about to deny it, but another cough forced its way out of her painful throat, silencing any doubts in Scorpia's mind.

"Interesting!" Entrapta shouted, grabbing her recorder and turning it on. "Fright Zone Log, Day 15. It seems Commander Catra is suffering an illness! Tell me, are you experiencing fatigue?"

"...Yes," Catra admitted. She would have lied, but she was a little too curious about whatever she had come down with to deny the symptom.

"Headaches? Muscle aches or chills? Fever?"

"...Yes, yes, and...no?"

Scorpia's claw was suddenly pressed against her forehead, and the princess herself piped up, "Looks like she is running a bit hot, Entrapta."

"Sounds like a strain of the flu then!" Entrapta determined cheerfully, before addressing her recorder again. "Incredible! I was certain Catra's unique physiology meant that she was unable to catch the viruses such as influenza, but it is possible that a strain of the virus mutated in a way that it was able to infect her! I'll need to get a sample in order to make sure though!"

"Hey, who said anything about-OW!"

The syringe was out of her arm before she could do anything, and one of Entrapta's pigtails got busy disinfecting the area and placing a bandage over the place where she had been jabbed as Entrapta herself moved over to her work table and got to work with the blood she had taken.

"The tests will take a while, but once I'm sure of the virus' capabilities I can put together a vaccine to prevent you from spreading it and maybe a cure if the symptoms don't go away!"

"...Huh." Catra glanced at the bandage and frowned at the weird doodles on it. "What's up with this bandage?"

Entrapta grinned. "Oh, when I was little I used to get into also sorts of trouble and get hurt, and apparently I refused to have any bandages except ones with those characters on them! In fact, I got this box from..." Entrapta went silent suddenly, and Scorpia and Catra looked at each other for a second, confused.

"Uh, Entrapta?" Scorpia spoke up, and Entrapta snapped out of it.

"Oh, it's nothing!" she explained cheerfully, her manic grin returning just before she clapped her mask over her face. "I'll get to work on that vaccine, but you'll need rest."

Catra began to protest, but Entrapta continued talking, as if she hadn't even noticed.

"It's actually really interesting! See, the symptoms you are experiencing aren't caused by the illness itself, but your body trying to fight it. The fever, for instance, is your body trying to kill the foreign contaminant through the heat. It is almost like an antivirus program for your body! But in order to better assist your body in the fight against the virus you need to have plenty of rest. Oh, and soup!"

"I can handle that!" Scorpia volunteered immediately. "Don't worry, boss, we'll have that virus defeated in no time!"

Catra's attempts to argue were drowned out by Entrapta calling out suggestions and Scorpia encouraging her to go rest and promising to cover for her, so she was forced to relent and head for her private room and flop on her bed.

God, how had Adora survived this?

* * *

_She crawled through the vents, the pathway seared into her muscle memory. Hordak supposedly knew all that happened in the Fright Zone, but the vents were Catra's domain alone, the one place the Horde could never reach her, hidden away in their own domain._

_Eventually, she reached a grate and popped it off, slipping down through the hole in the ceiling and landing in a crouch in the infirmary._

_"Catra!" Adora loudly whispered, her voice nasally and disgusting as she struggled to breathe. "You're here!"_

_"Of course I am!" Catra answered, puffing up her chest. "I'm awesome. So awesome, in fact, that I brought you...these!"_

_She handed Adora a pad of paper and a pencil and was rewarded with a gasp of delight before being grabbed by the wrists and being pulled into a warmer-than-normal hug._

_"You're hot," Catra whined._

_"Thank you."_

_She flushed a little. "That's...that's not what I mean!"_

_"I know, silly. It's my fever. 'sides, I'm not exactly looking at my best with the stupid flu."_

_Catra patted her best friends back. "Aw, you'll get better soon. And once you do we'll go cause chaos to make up for all the time you were stuck in here. Sound good?"_

_Adora smiled brightly at that (and somehow she managed to simultaneously look cute and like death warmed over), and the two sat there for hours, talking while Adora doodled and Catra resisted the urge to fiddle with the various medical equipment, and eventually Catra fell asleep, curled at Adora's feet like always._

* * *

Scorpia knocked on Catra's door. "Boss? Are you alive?"

There was a miserable groan from the inside and Scorpia opened the door to find the room dark, and Catra hissing at the light from outside.

"Headache," Catra grumbled, sounding absolutely awful. "Whaddayawant?"

"I brought soup!" Scorpia explained, grinning cheerfully. "This should make you feel better in no time."

Catra let out another groan before sitting up, and Scorpia didn't like how pale she was. She guessed it was a symptom of the flu though and carefully handed Catra the bowl.

"Thanks," she muttered, scooping a spoonful into her mouth before humming pleasantly. "Holy shit this is delicious."

"Make sure to eat it slowly," Scorpia quickly warned. "Last time I had the flu I was really nauseous, and we don't want you throwing up."

It took a while, Catra thankfully taking Scorpia's advice seriously when threatened with the chance of feeling worse and eating slowly, and Scorpia hovering anxiously, wanting to help but having no experience or knowledge beyond what Entrapta knew and having the flu a few times as a kid.

Finally, Catra passed over the bowl, mumbling, "Thanks Scorpia."

"Get some more rest, Boss."

Catra nodded and laid back down, curling up tightly under her blankets. Scorpia was just about to close the door behind her and return the dishes to the kitchen when Catra mumbled something barely identifiable.

"Get outta my head, Adora."

* * *

"Fright Zone Log, Day 17. Scorpia has informed me that Catra's condition has not improved. While there are medications to manage the symptoms, they have to be modified to fit Catra's unique physiology, which is a side project I am undertaking while investigating the illness that has infected her.

"As for the strain itself, after doing study on the virus I realized it is not a strain of influenza as previously hypothesized. In fact, it is a virus I have never even seen before. Considering the possible danger I have encouraged Scorpia to wear protective gear when visiting Catra and to wash her pincers well after doing so, and I am taking the same measures to protect myself. As of now, Catra is under unofficial quarantine. Scorpia and I have agreed to leave Hordak unaware of this.

"Something about this virus is...familiar...but I can't really place it. More research required. The medicine to maintain Catra's symptoms will have to take priority for a moment, as some of them have the potential to worsen her condition if left unchecked. I will return my focus to the virus itself once I am certain Catra has reached something closer to healthy.

"I hope that this virus will be defeated before she has the chance to get worse."


	2. Rash

Catra had fully intended to return to work once she was provided medication. She had never received any non-intravenous medication before (swallowing pills was something Scorpia had to tell her how to do, and she felt childish having to have something seemingly simple explained), so it was a different experience, but her fever appeared to calm down and her headaches became infrequent and her coughs grew less intense. Her throat was still sandpaper though, and she had another problem now in that her back was itchy.

Constantly itchy.

She only let herself touch the area briefly to feel the bumps under the fine layer of fur on her body, remembering vividly the one time Adora's arms were covered in red, itchy bumps after real plants were used in training, how Shadow Weaver demanded she not scratch, and somehow being in a weakened state was reminding Catra of how afraid she used to be of Shadow Weaver and so she didn't dare rake her claws against the bumpy skin even though it constantly bothered her.

Not anymore. Shadow Weaver couldn't hurt her anymore.

She didn't think it was the medicine making the rash appear. She remembered the itch starting before Entrapta sent Scorpia in with the medicine, though since she had felt like death already she hadn't really noticed how intense it was until it was almost all she could think about.

And going back to work was apparently impossible, because Entrapta had put her in unofficial quarantine.

When she had asked why, she got a very thorough explanation that boiled down to, "Potentially mutated virus was a threat to other Horde members, and they had no idea if Catra was contagious or not, and even if the symptoms went away completely that didn't mean the virus was gone because viruses were dumb like that and they needed to avoid an outbreak."

Catra didn't ask why they hadn't made the quarantine official. She knew Hordak wouldn't tolerate weakness, or the potential plague Catra was carrying (and plague was probably not the right word for it but fuck Catra hated being sick).

One upside was Scorpia wasn't allowed to hug her though, even if she was pretty much the only person who regularly visited her, and now she wore a mask and specially designed gloves for her pincers when she came in.

Catra didn't know why she hadn't brought up the rash. Maybe it was out of hope that once the other symptoms had run their course, the two princesses would release her back to her work, or maybe it was because she wasn't really up for Scorpia's concerned expression anymore. No need to make that worse.

Even if she wanted to rip her skin off.

* * *

"Hey Boss," Scorpia called cheerfully, receiving a groan as she entered. Thankfully, the groan appeared less out of the desire for death and more out of irritation now, which was a good sign.

"I've brought some food, and more medication! You should be feeling better in no time!"

Catra groaned again, though this one had a touch of whine in it, the only reminder that Scorpia was actually older than the actual second-in-command of the Horde.

Sometimes, it was pretty easy to forget that Scorpia was the older one. She had always been a cheery, childish person, and that hadn't gone away even after training in the Horde and becoming Force Captain. And yet Catra was very serious and ambitious for someone who couldn't have been more than eighteen, though ages were hard since birthdays were something the Horde didn't do, and Scorpia only knew hers because she remembered it from before her dad welcomed the Horde in and gave both her and the Black Garnet up to Hordak.

(Scorpia didn't like to think on that too long, else she might think about how fucked up that kind of was, giving your very young daughter over to people you barely knew and essentially stripping her of everything except her now useless title.)

"Hey, Entrapta forgot something," Catra pointed out as Scorpia handed her the pills.

"Oh yeah, that was the medicine for your headaches and fever," Scorpia explained. "Entrapta is switching it out with a new one she is working on, because the ingredients of the old one can be harmful if you take it regularly for too long. I didn't understand most of the explanation but I think it hurts your liver?"

"Ugh, so some of this medication will kill me if being sick doesn't," Catra grumbled, beginning the process of taking the pills. Scorpia began rubbing her back reassuringly, pausing for a moment when Catra gave her an annoyed look before continuing cheerfully when she wasn't told to stop.

"Oh, I have some reports for you too!" Scorpia added, pausing to pull the tablet out from her belt. "They are detailing Horde movements and any altercations with the Rebellion since the invasion on Bright Moon. Thought they might keep you entertained."

"Finally, work to do," Catra whined, holding out her hands in the universal "gimme" gesture.

* * *

"How is Catra?" Entrapta asked, working at her table diligently.

"She has a rash on her back," Scorpia explained. "You know, for someone who doesn't like feeling sick, she sure is making figuring out what she has difficult. I ended up finding out by accident."

"Huh," Entrapta remarked, quickly turning on her recorder. "Fright Zone Log, Day 33. It appears one of the symptoms of this virus is a rash. Catra was not helpful in informing us of this symptom, but considering how terrible rashes are I have forgiven her. However, this will make learning what has infected Catra easier to figure out. I still haven't figured out what the structure of the virus reminds me of though, and that concerns-"

Before she could finish, there was a beeping from Scorpia's belt.

"And that's my cue," she remarked cheerfully.

She and Entrapta had disguised Catra disappearing as her going on a mission into the Whispering Woods, just dangerous enough that no one would attempt to follow her but not too dangerous to keep from expecting her to return. Scorpia had taken over her duties in the meantime, and the room Catra was in had been programmed by Entrapta to make sure no one could accidentally enter without wearing the same protective gear Scorpia wore.

As long as the two of them were on the job, Catra would have nothing to worry about!

* * *

_"It itches," Adora whined, and Catra quickly pulled her hands away from her arms._

_"No, Adora. Shadow Weaver will kill us if you don't listen to her. No scratching."_

_Adora gave a tiny, baby scowl, which was more funny and adorable than scary, and gave a groan. "Lucky you. You don't get sick, you don't have an allergic reaction to stupid plants. I want your genetics."_

_"Don't let Shadow Weaver hear you say that," Catra warned jokingly._

_Adora smirked, before she began gushing. "How cool would it be though? You never get sick, you have claws, you hear and smell better than I do, and you have the best, fluffiest hair! And then maybe I'd be as fast and agile as you."_

_"Heh." Catra flushed with embarrassment. "It's not that great."_

_"But it is! You're great!"_

_Catra's face grew warmer at that, and she and Adora seemed to realize at the same time that Catra was still holding her hands. Adora's smile softened, and she turned her hands to be holding Catra's too._

_"Thanks for taking care of me," she said quietly, and Catra couldn't help the soft smile that came to her lips, a smile so unlike her usual smirk that only Adora really knew she was capable of it, in the way only Adora really knew anything about her._

_"No problem, Adora."_

_Then her hands were no longer holding Adora's and her claws were dug into Adora's back in Bright Moon and Catra heard her pain, ringing in her ears and the She-Ra in front of her became the Adora from her childhood, screaming and screaming and-_

_"Catra, please wake up."_

Catra's eyes snapped open and she immediately looked at her claws, almost expecting to see Adora's blood still on them. But the only blood was hers, and the itch in her back was replaced with cutting, searing pain.

"Fuck."

* * *

"Fright Zone Log, Day 36. I understand now why the virus structure is so familiar. It appears that it is similar to the crystal structures of the Black Garnet. I am currently looking through the files, but at this point I believe that the virus is actually some form of microscopic bio-tech, potentially made by the First Ones, though I haven't discerned why.

"Currently I am looking through the data from the First Ones, hoping to-I found something!  I need to call Scorpia and Cat...ra...

"...

"...No.

"...This...the virus...

"...I'm sorry. I will have to cut this part of the log short. I need to...to do more research."

Click.

"...

"Shit."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Catra:** *scratching herself* Yep, no new symptoms or anything! Ready to go back to work at any time!  
>  **Scorpia:**
> 
> Scorpia is the most physically affectionate person Catra knows, so if she can't hug she'll at least pet. It was the closest thing to scratching her itchy back that Catra was getting which was why she didn't stop it.
> 
> As for the illness...something weird is going on... ~~and Shadow Weaver has nothing to do with it~~.


	3. Lightheaded

Catra was lucky she had bandages in her room.

She had always been expected to handle her own first aid, and while Adora had helped some before she defected, Catra was experienced in doing it for herself.

There was no way in hell Scorpia or Entrapta were going to hear a word of this.

It was fine. She could handle it on her own.

She carefully stood up, but her vision felt clouded and her balance was wavering as she made her way over to the drawers, pulling out disinfectant and bandages and glancing at her bed that she had just stumbled over from.

Stumbling.

This wasn't good at all.

* * *

Scorpia knew something was off the moment she arrived.

Even while sick and meant to be resting, Catra had been moving around in her usual graceful way. Scorpia was almost jealous of how easily Catra could move without making a sound, how quick and sharp and perfected each movement was, but Scorpia also knew she would definitely win against Catra in a wrestling match and so that kept her from feeling too inadequate.

But when Scorpia opened the door, Catra was unsteady, one hand holding disinfectant and a roll of bandages and the other pressed against the wall, knuckles white. And then Scorpia noticed the blood and started to panic.

"Are you alright? Did someone attack? What's-"

"Stop," Catra grimaced, looking up to glare at her with tired eyes. "My head hurts and my body hates me, so please shut up."

It was then that Scorpia noticed the ripped shirt and it hit her, and she wasted no time picking Catra up and setting her on the bed with only a hiss of disapproval.

Scorpia's claws were difficult for doing some tasks, but she had learned long ago how to clean and dress wounds, not to mention that she had thankfully brought salve for the rash with her today. She quickly got to work, disinfecting the claw marks and slathering the salve on the rash and wrapping it all in bandages carefully in order not to damage Catra's ribs.

"Once I got a rash from a poisonous plant on a mission," Scorpia recalled as she worked. "One of the people in my troop also had one and refused the anti-itch salve and ended up scratching herself in her sleep and getting an infection. So next time you have a rash, you should tell me or Entrapta so you don't end up hurting yourself or making things worse."

"Fine fine, will you please shut up?" Catra grumbled. "Sorry for thinking I could handle this myself."

"You're forgiven!" Scorpia patted Catra on the shoulder and went to grab her a new shirt. "You don't have to handle things on your own though, especially when you're sick. Entrapta and I know how much it sucks and we just want to help you feel better, but we can't if you don't tell us anything. You'll heal faster if we all know what's going on and what to do to help you."

She tossed the new, undamaged shirt to Catra, who caught it easily and pulled it on as quickly as possible.

"Whenever I stand, it's hard to balance, and sometimes I feel close to passing out," Catra finally admitted, the words almost a hiss.

Scorpia nodded and rested her claw on Catra's forehead. "Feels like you have a low fever. Water should probably help, so I'll go ahead and grab you a cup."

Catra sighed. "Ugh, I hate this."

"Yeah, being sick is the worst." Scorpia grabbed a cup and went to the sink, filling it up and setting it next to Catra's bed.

"...Thanks Scorpia."

"No problem. That's what friends are for."

* * *

_"Catra, I'm fine," Adora muttered, but Catra could see how flushed and awful she looked and her worry didn't go away._

_"I knew that desert-based simulator was a bad idea," Catra grumbled. She had been excluded from the simulator, sighting concern about her hairier body causing her to overheat. Shadow Weaver had tried to force it, but the instructor had thankfully been unmoving, declaring that they could start training her for hotter climates once she was old enough to be able to handle it better, and it would be pointless throwing her out there now._

_Apparently Adora and Kyle hadn't handled the heat well. Kyle passed out before the simulator was over and Adora had managed to finish (top scoring, of course), but now her face was red and she looked awful and she was stumbling._

_"I...I'm fine," Adora mumbled, trying to walk on her own before swaying and putting her weight on the wall, attempting to keep herself balanced. Catra groaned and slung one of Adora's arms over her shoulders._

_"You are not fine, now lets get you some water and try and cool you off."_

_As the two walked down the hall, it occurred to Catra just how close Adora was, and she glanced over to see her grimacing face and wanted to fight Shadow Weaver for suggesting this stupid idea._

_"Catra?" Adora mumbled, meeting her eyes._

_"Yeah?"_

_"Thanks," she said, and she smiled and Catra felt warm._

_Then Adora's weight was gone and she was hanging from the cliff, but this wasn't the right Adora this wasn't the one that had left her this was the young Adora sick with heat stroke and Catra heard her beg to come back as she turned and walked away and-_

_"Catra, you have to wake up!"_

She woke up in a sweat, shaking like a leaf, Adora's name unsaid on her tongue.

And she hated Adora and she missed Adora and her head was pounding and she just wished she was on that small bunk and curled at Adora's feet again because sleeping alone had always been hard and somehow being sick made it worse.

She needed a distraction, so she pulled out the tablet and looked through.

And that was when she saw it.

* * *

"Hey Entrapta, how's that...cure...coming...?"

Entrapta's lab was a mess. There were technological components strewn everywhere, as if she had taken every piece of technology she could find apart and it hadn't even occurred to her to put it back together. The floor was a mess of switches and wires and screws and metal plates, and when Scorpia looked up she finally found Entrapta.

She was hanging from the ceiling with a tuft from each pigtail and the rest of her hair was deconstructing a security camera with brutal efficiency as Entrapta herself was working on a computer, her mask over her face.

"Um, Entrapta?" Scorpia called. She was about to ask if something was wrong when Entrapta's mask-covered face turned towards her.

"Scorpia! Good! You're here!" Entrapta dropped to the ground and set the computer back onto the worktable. Her hair threw down the pieces of the camera roughly to the ground, and Scorpia flinched at the violent movement. "I finally managed to identify the virus that infected Catra."

"Great!" Scorpia answered, still unnerved by the scene around her. "So, uh, what is it?"

"It's actually fascinating!" Entrapta explained, her voice rushing at a speed Scoroia could barely keep up with. "The First Ones called it sun fever, a bio-tech virus originally designed to act as a defense mechanism for the Moonstone! I knew the structure was strange, but it is actually very similar to the structure of the crystal technology developed by the First Ones, like the runestones and the information drives. I realized this after comparing it to the Black Garnet."

"But Catra was never near the Moonstone. I was closer than she was."

"Right! And that is because the Moonstone no longer induces sun fever at all!"

* * *

Catra was sick and her balance was failing her, but she was still the quietest of the Horde, and so the troop marching towards the transports didn't even notice her stalking them.

* * *

"Huh? Why?"

"Because they screwed up!" Entrapta answered, her voice overly manic. "The Moonstone started infecting  _everyone_ who went near it, the virus unable to tell who was friend or foe, and it began to spread like a plague! Deaths across Etheria because of one faulty security feature!"

Something was wrong.

* * *

"This is a suicide mission," one of the soldiers grumbled.

"Be quiet!" another hissed. "Do you want to get us in trouble?"

The first soldier crossed his arms. "Hordak is sending us to our deaths. Everyone knows the only one able to stand a chance against She-Ra is Commander Catra, and she isn't here!"

He was half-right.

* * *

"Eventually the immune systems of the First Ones caught up and the deaths stopped, and the Moonstone was reprogrammed. But they decided they still had a use for sun fever!"

"What use?"

Scorpia could tell something was wrong. Entrapta was messy, but not in a wasteful way like this, but in a way where she knew exactly what item was where even if no one else did. She liked to deconstruct technology, but she always used the pieces almost immediately if she didn't put it back together better than before. And she never kept her mask down for this long, because Entrapta liked to flip it up and down and up and down during conversation.

* * *

Slipping into the cargo hold of the transport was laughably easy, and Catra was doing it with shit balance, cloudy vision, and a pounding headache. If she could do it sick then the Rebellion would probably be able to manage it.

Honestly, when she took charge of the Horde, she was going to shape these idiots up.

* * *

"The temples! The crystal temples contained precious information, information that could be used to cause serious damage and hurt the First Ones! I mean, just a few weeks ago we used information from one of those temples to send the entire planet into chaos! So, the Temples upgraded one of their security features!"

On the screen appeared blueprints for what looked like a spider to Scorpia.

"To restrain unauthorized personnel, these bots use a material like spider silk, though not as strong. So the First Ones reprogrammed sun fever using the Moonstone to only spread through contact with the synthetic silk, and then incorporated the dormant virus into the silk. The intention was to make sure the secrets found by the intruder died with them if they managed to escape!"

"Entrapta..." Scorpia took a step towards her friend. She didn't sound cheerful really.

"By inhibiting the spread, they prevented another plague, so the only way to ever catch it is to come in contact with their security!"

"Entrapta..."

"It was the perfect trap! Even if you escape, as long as those bots hit you once, you're doomed to die!"

Scorpia grabbed her friend, turning her around so they were face-to-face and pulling the mask up to expose Entrapta's face.

* * *

Catra hid in the back, holding her head in her hands and breathing as carefully as she could, trying to hold back the nausea as the vehicle shook and her head pounded.

She just had to hold out long enough to get to her destination. She just needed to hold out long enough to finally get Adora out of her head for good.

She had to kill Adora before her memories killed her.

* * *

Entrapta's eyes were red and swollen, and there were tear tracks on her face, and Scorpia's heart broke at the sight of her desperately held together grin.

"It's my fault," she said, the manic hysteria draining out of her voice, and the false smile crumpled as tears began running down her face. "It's all my fault. Catra went to the temple because I told her to. If she hadn't gone, she wouldn't have to die. I don't want her to die."

"She's not going to die," Scorpia said firmly, but Entrapta looked at the floor.

"There is no cure, Scorpia. The First Ones never made one. The only way I could make one if I was able to get into the code of the Moonstone, and there is no way to access it without getting caught."

"Can't you hack it from the Black Garnet?" Scorpia couldn't help the desparation in her voice. She didn't like how hopeless Entrapta seemed, and she couldn't stand the thought that Catra could really...

"I tried. I tried for hours. I tried and tried but it would take years to get it, and Catra doesn't have that long. I'm the reason she's going to die and I can't even save her."

Entrapta's hair was hanging limp, not moving for the first time Scorpia had ever seen, and it fit the hopelessness of the situation too well.

"...No."

Entrapta blinked, looking at Scorpia with surprise.

"Catra's not gonna die. I don't care what we have to do. We will get you to that Moonstone and we'll get her the cure. So let's grab her and figure out what we are going to do."

* * *

"Whispering Woods Log, Hour 1."

"Why won't these stupid skiffs go any faster?!"

"Catra has left quarantine, and based on evidence our hypothesis is that she intends to go after She-Ra, who Hordak sent troops after when she was supposedly seen in the woods earlier. Based on the information, she has a thirty to forty-five minute head start, which increases by another thirty minutes every time the woods shifts."

"C'mon!"

"In Catra's current condition, judging by Scorpia's assessment earlier and the First Ones records about the progression of sun fever, she has days left before organ failure and death. However, if she attempts to battle She-Ra..."

"I never should have given her that tablet!"

"...In her condition, her chances of surviving a battle are slim. Scorpia and I have decided on the best course of action for her treatment, but that all depends on one thing..."

"Can this forest please stay in one place long enough so we can find her?!"

"...We have to find her before she gets herself killed...I just hope we're in time."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ooooooooh boy.


	4. Fever

The previous symptoms came back with a  _vengeance_.

Fuck waiting until she took over. Once Catra got over whatever the hell this was, she was going to immediately overhaul the training program to add some awareness training, because she couldn't help the painful, shaking coughs that pushed their way out of her chest with growing frequency, and still  _no one_ noticed her, and Catra figured they could spare a few less combat training sessions to teach their troops how to fucking pay attention to mysterious, suspicious noises less than five feet away from them.

Her chest hurt, her throat hurt, her head hurt, and she just was so done with being sick when she started feeling cold randomly. Why wouldn't it just go away already? It should make like Adora and  _leave_.

She felt tired, she felt hurt, she felt like shit and the only reason she was here was because something in her brain was latching onto Adora again and wouldn't let go and Catra needed to end this. Catra didn't care how fucking terrible she felt.

She-Ra needed to die if Catra wanted to ever get over her.

* * *

"Whispering Woods Log, Hour 4. Scorpia and I found tracks from the troops Hordak sent after She-Ra. While a starting point, with the ever shifting landscape they are not a foolproof method of tracking Catra. The Woods themselves seems to have healed quite significantly in the past weeks, meaning that getting through is now at least 75% of the challange that it once was.

"Considering the nature of the virus, I attempted to use my tracker for First Ones technology, but considering this is microscopic bio-tech we are working with I couldn't get a signal from Catra, especially with stronger signals around that we can't investigate right now because Catra doesn't have the time."

"Just stay with us tracks. Just stay with us."

* * *

Finally, the transport stopped, and Catra slipped out before the soldiers could enter the cargo hold, weapon in hand.

Normally she would have just used her claws, but she was not exactly in a good place physically right now and so stealing one of the electric batons was her best bet.

Standing was a nightmare, and she felt close to passing out right on the forest floor. Good thing Hordak hadn't seen her like this, because he would have "mercy killed" her on the spot.

Scorpia and Entrapta were probably freaking out, with her disappearing like that. Hopefully they hadn't noticed yet.

Catra pushed that to the back of her mind and took a deep breath, focusing on one goal.

Tracking She-Ra.

* * *

The Whispering Woods were being nice today, because the tracks didn't stop and Scorpia followed them dilligently.

Entrapta was rambling into her recorder every now and then, her hair taking apart one of the weapons Scorpia had brought and putting it back together over and over again. She wasn't flipping the mask up and down, but that was probably out of panic that Catra was going to pick a fight with what was basically a demigod while barely able to walk.

And what Entrapta was planning on doing...Scorpia didn't like it. The fact was, neither of them knew what the reaction would be. And so Scorpia adjusted the plans in her head, not saying a word about it.

She wasn't going to leave Entrapta alone, just like she wasn't going to let Catra die.

* * *

And there she was.

She was in She-Ra mode too. That made things easier. Memories of Adora swirling in her head made the idea of fighting her as she normally was a little bit distasteful. It would be easier when it was She-Ra, because then Catra could pretend this wasn't her best friemd for as long as she could remember, this wasn't Adora, this was some princess she could defeat.

She wasn't walking silently, her lack of balance plus the stick and leaf covered forest floor rustling and cracking beneath her feet, and so She-Ra looked up the moment she reached the clearing.

"Catra." She-Ra's voice was cold, her resolve unwavering, and Catra grinned. Good, she didn't think she could tolerate it any other way right now.

"Hey-" She started coughing, and there was the taste of metal in her mouth and holy shit it was possible to cough up blood?! That was disgusting and horrifying what the fuck?! Being sick was the fucking worst!

And dammit, there went that cold resolve and there was that stupid concerned face that was too close to normal Adora's for comfort.

"Are you...Catra are you sick?"

"It doesn't matter," she growled out. "You are still going-"

There was a snort, and Catra paused as she looked at She-Ra, confused, just before the eight foot tall magical warrior princess cracked up.

"Oh...oh my god," she wheezed, and the transformation fell away and left behind just Adora, holding her abdomen and tearing up. "I'm sorry...I just can't believe you're...you're sick? You and your god-like immune system?"

Catra glared at her. "It's not funny."

"All the times I got sick and you made fun of me and bragged about how awesome you were because you couldn't, and now here you are. It's hilarious!"

"No...it's not...it's not funny."

And yet she couldn't help snorting, because dammit, Adora wasn't wrong. She had definitely made fun of her a lot when she was sick, and there had definitely been bragging, and now here she was, half dead. It was a bit of a cosmic joke, and fuck, now she was laughing too.

"We're...we're supposed to be fighting," Catra managed through the snorts.

"I'm not going to fight you when you're sick, Catra," Adora answered, wiping her tears from her face and sheathing her sword on her back. "Maybe some other time when it's actually fair."

"I could totally kill you like-" Catra was interrupted by a coughing fit, and Adora sighed and shook her head, a soft smile on her face.

"Just go back to the Fright Zone and get some rest, Catra. Trust me, I'm more than willing to fight you when you're healthy, but right now I have several unfair advantages and I'd rather we do this as equals."

And Catra was completely prepared to argue, considering she had travelled all the way here, but facing Adora (not She-Ra,  _Adora_ ), who was perfectly healthy, armed with a magical sword, and all while missing her key advantages of speed and agility with her balance as fucked up as it was...there was really no chance of her winning, was there?

Ugh...

"Fine. When I'm better though, I'm kicking your ass."

"It'll be a simultaneous ass-kicking."

"You wish."

Catra turned to leave, but a wave of dizziness struck her, and she had to pause for a moment, leaning against a tree to keep herself upright.

"Catra?" The humor was gone from Adora's voice.

She grimaced, refusing to look at her former best friend. "I'm fine. But you won't be next time we face off."

"...Okay...just be careful. I didn't come alone."

"Thanks for the warning. Now get lost."

* * *

"Whispering Woods Log, Hour 6. We found the transport vehicle but the troops themselves aren't there. It seems they haven't located-"

"It sounds like there's fighting in the distance!"

"...Shit. Scorpia, we have to go find them. Now."

* * *

Adora should have just left Catra to go on her sickly way. Should have captured her instead of laughing and reminiscing. Should have done a lot of things, really.

But Adora didn't like how Catra stumbled there, how off-balance she was, and she felt like this was more than just a cold, that Catra was really sick.

So after several minutes of deliberation she let out a soft, "Fuck it," and headed in the direction Catra went.

If Catra had been at her best, there wouldn't have been a trail to follow, but Catra was nowhere close to her best right now, and so there were prints and broken twigs and crushed leaves, all pointing in her direction.

Adora didn't know what she was planning to do. She wasn't going to capture Catra, because it didn't feel fair to take advantage of her illness. She wouldn't be able to convince her to go back to Bright Moon for treatment, and the only way taking her there would help was if Catra surrendered and even sick she'd be too stubborn for that. So what was the plan? Knock her out and hand her over to some Horde soldiers? Toss her in the transport herself? 

The sounds of fighting drew Adora out of her planning.

"Fuck."

And so she ran.

* * *

Well the soldiers hadn't found She-Ra, but they had found pretty much every other princess in fucking existence, except maybe Frosta and the two loveable idiots back in the Fright Zone. Who knew three princesses and one jackass with a bow and arrow could cause so much damage to an entire troop without She-Ra backing them up?

Catra was tempted to jump in and participate, but another coughing fit and more iron-tasting blood in her mouth was a decent reality check there that she was not going to stand a chance, especially since Sparky McTeleport now had a weapon and was causing some actual carnage with her teleport-and-attack method.

Adora probably taught her how to fight properly, or maybe one of the other princesses did. At her best, Catra would have a decent shot at taking her down, but right now any attempt would end in her immediate death. And that wasn't even considering that her back up was just as lethal, if not as mobile.

Yeah, Catra was going to sit this one out, and actually sit down while she was at it because standing was not going well for her right now.

What the fuck had she been thinking?

Suddenly, with a flash of pink light, the end of a staff was pointed at her throat, and Adora's new best friend was glaring at her.

"Where's Adora?" she demanded, and there was the bow guy, running up with an arrow notched.

Catra was going to reply with a "Fuck you I don't know", but she began coughing again, and yep that was more blood and Adora's new buddies backed away as she held her arm up to her mouth and shit now the blood was out of her mouth and she dazedly realized this was definitely not good.

"What did you do to her?!" Bow guy shouted.

Sparkly girl looked panicked. "Nothing! I didn't even touch her!"

There was a lot of attention on all three of them with the other two princesses looking at them and poised to attack, and Catra wanted to fight all of them but when she attempted to stand she could feel everything spinning and her vision was blurring as she almost immediately started to fall, and there was a pink flash and Sparky was holding her up.

It was hard to think and her chest and her head and her throat hurt and she felt like she was baking even though she had felt so cold before, and she wondered if her calling this a plague before wasn't as much of an overreaction as she had thought.

Distantly, she wondered if this was what was going to kill her.

"Adora!" the stupid sparkly princess shouted, and Catra wanted to claw her stupid cutesy face off but her legs wobbled and gave out and her vision went dark and everything was mercifully quiet.

* * *

Glimmer yelped as Catra went limp, and she was barely able to hold her up as suddenly everything flew into chaos.

"Fall back, now!" a familiar voice called, and the Horde forces quickly retreated just as two different voices simultaneously shouted, "Catra!"

And that was when Entrapta ran forward, throwing herself between an approaching Adora and Glimmer, who was doing her best to deal with the full weight of Catra.

"Don't hurt her," Entrapta insisted, her voice attempting to be firm but wavering slightly.

"En...Entrapta," Adora whispered, her eyes wide, and in an instant Perfuma burst into tears and ran forward, pulling Entrapta into a tight embrace.

"You're alive!" Perfuma forced out between sobs. "Thank the universe you're alive!"

"...What? What do you mean?"

Adora stepped forward. "Entrapta...we thought you died in the Fright Zone...I...I'm so sorry." And Adora looked like she was going to cry too but now wasn't really the time when Glimmer was supporting the entirety of the weight of one of the Rebellion's worst enemies who only Adora (and apparently Entrapta?) really cared about.

"Entrapta! Catra!"

And that was when Princess Scorpia (fucking hell all they needed was Frosta and they could have a princess party) made her appearance. Perfuma immediately released Entrapta, getting into a stance with Mermista, but Entrapta moved between them and Scorpia and held her hands out.

"No, it's okay! Scorpia's my friend, she's not going to hurt you!"

Glimmer was getting overwhelmed (this was a lot to take in), so she quickly turned her focus to the passed out Force Captain practically on top of her, shifting so she could place one of her hands on Catra's forehead.

"What's going on?" Bow asked, sounding completely freaked out. He looked to Glimmer for help, but she wasn't paying attention, too focused on Catra's temperature.

Catra's skin felt hot. Too hot, and Glimmer remembered how when she was little and Bow got a bad fever, how her mother had told her how dangerous high fevers were, how they could kill if they weren't taken care of, how necessary it was to cool down the person in order to keep them from dying, how terrified Bow's dads had been until they finally got him to cool down some.

This was serious, and Glimmer definitely could give less of a shit about Catra, but Adora clearly did and even so she still had basic fucking empathy and so she began to panic a little.

Catra needed medical attention  _yesterday_.

There was a thud, and Glimmer could see Scorpia on her knees on the ground, claws in the air. Entrapta looked surprised, meaning clearly the two of them hadn't planned this.

"Just let us help Catra, and I'll surrender. Please."

And Adora didn't even hesitate.

"Okay."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Make like Adora and leave" was one of my favorite lines to write.
> 
> I'll go a bit more into Scorpia's motivation for doing this later, but let's just say that Scorpia knows what she's doing ~~even if she doesn't always~~.
> 
> Oh yeah, now everyone knows Entrapta's alive.
> 
> Glimmer is such a good friend guys. She only gives a shit because Adora would be upset if Catra dies and if that isn't friendship I dunno what is.


	5. Delirium

Catra had never gotten sick before.

_Catra, please._

Never. Not once in her life. She had never caught anything from anyone in the Horde, probably because she was another species, a species she didn't know existed anymore beyond her. She has never known what she was, and Shadow Weaver had never cared to explain that.

_Catra, hang in there. Just hold on._

But Catra had gotten hurt before. Seriously hurt.

_Please wake up, Catra._

It was an accident during a training simulator, caused by Lonnie getting annoyed with Catra and tugging on her tail, which had thrown her off balance and sent her toppling head-first into the ground.

_Please._

She didn't remember the moment of impact, or anything immediately afterward. She didn't remember most of it actually, only that it had happened, and that Adora had been pissed at Lonnie for weeks after Catra woke up. And, oddly enough, Adora had never explained it to her, how she managed to come back from that.

_Catra, I need you._

Adora's hand was cool in hers, squeezing tightly, and it felt like past and present was blurred, so much so that she couldn't tell what this was.

"How long does she have?"

"A week, maybe two if she's lucky. Entrapta's trying to get access to the Moonstone make the cure."

_Is she gonna be okay?_

_I don't know. The swelling has yet to go down, and even if she recovers there will be other problems, probably for the rest of her life._

**_A mercy killing may be order._**

"What's happening?"

"I don't know! I was keeping an eye on her and she started thrashing!"

"Catra, it'll be okay. I'm here, no one is going to hurt you. I won't let anyone hurt you."

_No! She's not going to die!_

Adora's voices blended together, as well as quiet reassurance and stern refusal could, and yet Catra felt calm because she trusted Adora, trusted Adora to not hurt her even after everything.

_Adora, I-_

_Save it! You hurt her. You hurt my best friend._

_I'm sorry, please I-_

_Are you sorry you hurt her or are you sorry because I'm mad at you?_

_..._

_That's what I thought. Just go away, Lonnie. Don't pretend like you care._

Catra didn't remember that, and yet she did. Maybe she dreamed it up. It wouldn't surprise her that Lonnie hadn't really cared about nearly killing Catra, that Adora cared and was mad at her for it.

_No one's here to protect you anymore._

"Hey Glimmer, where's Adora?"

"Still talking with Mom...are you reading her fairy tales?"

"Okay, but hear me out. She has never heard them before because she was in the Horde, and I didn't want to sit in silence. Reading aloud is good for both of us!"

"Alright then you dork...hey Catra. We may not be friends, but Adora cares about you. So you better stay alive."

_Catra, stay alive. I need you._

_**I knew you were a mistake. From the very moment Hordak gave you to me I knew you would be a disappointment.** _

Catra flinched, the terror at shadows and darkness anew, and everything in her screamed to run, but she was paralyzed by red electricity.

"So you are the Force Captain Adora is enamoured with."

_**You have only served to bring Adora down, to ruin her.** _

"I suppose I can't blame her for still having attachments with the Horde. She left so quickly after all."

**_Your best hope is to die quickly, before Adora is weakened anymore by you._ **

"...It is...devastating, seeing how young you are. And a magi-cat too. I haven't seen the magi-cats since before the last Princess Alliance fell apart."

**_You are a hybrid parasite._ **

"No one told you of your heritage, I presume. The magi-cats populated the city of Half Moon before disappearing so long ago. I thought the Horde had killed them all."

**_You will break her, and I will not allow it. I have more use for Adora, and her attachment will only weaken her to my purposes._ **

"...I will not harm you, or your friends. Until you return to the Horde, you are safe in Bright Moon. All I ask is that you do not perish."

_**I should kill you now.** _

"Adora should not have to know what it feels like to lose the person she loves."

_Stop!_

Memories she didn't remember having, swirled together with events she weren't sure were real, into a hellhole of past and present pain and voices and fear, and there was that shadow, one so much like Shadow Weaver's that Catra shook.

"Her fevers too high again! We need to cool her off!"

"I'll get her, Adora."

That shadow...it wouldn't go away.

"You aren't allowed to die. Not after everything. You are not going to die. If you make Adora cry I will go into the afterlife and bring you back just so I can kill you again."

She wondered if this was what your life flashing before your eyes meant. That explained the terror, and the memories she didn't recognize.

"Catra...please don't leave me."

Damn, her life had been really shitty, hadn't it? Were there really no good parts?

_Just so you know, I'm a hugger!_

_Nothing bad can happen as long as were together._

_I call it the Best Pal Trio!_

_Hey Oktavia! You have a dumb face!_

_Don't hurt her._

Running with Adora through the halls and causing chaos and laughing together, the feeling of punching Shadow Weaver's mask off, a cartoony bandage slapped on her arm as Entrapta got to work, Scorpia helping her when she could barely walk, laughing with Adora at the cosmic joke that was getting sick for the first time in her miserable life.

...Okay, maybe there were some good parts.

"I need you, Catra."

_Catra, I need you._

_I need you._

_I need you._

_I need you._

_I need you._

"I've got it! I finally got it!"

* * *

_"I did something bad, Catra...Shadow Weaver was going to kill you, so I...I fought back, threatened to...and she...made a deal..._

_"I'm sorry. You were gonna die. I am so sorry._

_"Please wake up._

_"Catra, I need you."_

* * *

There was bright light on the other side of Catra's eyelids, and she wanted no part of it, squeezing them shut even tighter and rolling over with a groan.

...This bed was too soft.

Where was she?

Suddenly, there was a shadow over her, and she instinctively opened her eyes and prepared for a fight, only to see Entrapta and Scorpia hovering over her.

"You're awake!" Scorpia shouted, pulling her into a near-suffocating hug, and Entrapta teared up before wrapping herself, including her hair, around them both.

"Scorpia...Entrapta...can't breathe."

The two girls quickly released her (good, she could expand her ribs again), and Catra finally got a good look at her very bright, very pastel surroundings.

What the fuck?

"Where the fuck are we?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh boy, Catra's gonna need a lot of explanation for this.
> 
> Thank you all for your sweet comments! I love them all!


	6. Recovery

"Why the fuck are we in Bright Moon?!"

Let's just say everyone in that hallway heard Catra's enraged disbelief. Not that she cared, since she was not happy to be in  _enemy territory_.

Entrapta grinned. "Oh, that was us! You see, the virus you had, sun fever, originated with the Moonstone as a defense mechanism. While it was eventually implemented into the synthetic silk of the security system in the temples, the original code was still with the Moonstone. To make a cure, I simply had to go through the Moonstone's code and reprogram the virus so I could deactivate it."

"That doesn't answer my question," Catra answered with a scowl. "Why the fuck am  _I_ here?"

"Well there was no way to access the Moonstone without Queen Angella's permission. Scorpia and I had negotiate for access, and with how far along you had progressed you needed around the clock attention and to be close by so I could help you as soon after finding the information. There was no other way to keep you from dying."

Catra grimaced at the faces Scorpia and Entrapta were making (and she remembered Adora making the same face when she explained how Catra had fallen years ago) before sighing.

"Thanks, I guess," she grumbled. "Just how long do we have to be here?"

Entrapta and Scorpia looked at each other, and Catra's eyes narrowed. "Guys...what did you do?"

It was Scorpia who spoke.

"Entrapta and I can't leave," she admitted, and Catra's blood ran cold. "That was...that was part of the arrangement."

"...What."

"The Moonstone is a vital piece of technology, and you are an enemy of the Evil Horde," Entrapta explained, her hair fidgeting with some random piece of technology. "Queen Angella was sympathetic, but we knew going into this that we would have to offer something in return. So we offered ourselves."

"...Are you fucking kidding me?" Catra asked, her voice quiet. "You just gave away yourselves to the enemy. What the fuck?"

"I'm sorry, but there was no other way," Scorpia explained. "If we hadn't, there was nothing else we could offer, not without Horde resources we didn't have."

"This...this is a fucking nightmare." Catra turned to Entrapta. "Why...these assholes  _left you_!"

"No," Entrapta answered, sounding calm even as her hair began to brutally deconstruct the device it was playing with before. "That was a theory. Scientific theories are tentative, considered valid until proven wrong by new data. I didn't know...they thought I was dead. They didn't go back for me because they thought I was killed in the disinfection chambers. Perfuma made...they didn't leave me behind because I'm not like them. They left me behind because they thought there was nothing left."

"But the technology! You left it all be-"

"It's not more important than my friends, Catra!" Entrapta interrupted, frustrated, and the pieces were thrown down, causing Catra and Scorpia to flinch. "It's not more important than your life! You're my friend and I could recreate everything I had in the Fright Zone myself but I can't recreate people who care about me! I know! I've tried!"

Catra had nothing to say about that (and there was guilt, guilt because Entrapta cared and Catra had been using her and unintentionally lying to manipulate her and she could almost feel the red crackling energy and hear Shadow Weaver's voice and there was shame and anger and guilt), so she turned to Scorpia.

"Don't," Scorpia said, her voice quiet. "I know what you're going to say, and I know, and I don't care."

"Scorpia, c'mon." And there was absolutely no pleading in her voice, none at all.

"Catra, you were going to die, and you were my only friend in the Horde before Entrapta came along," she continued (there was that guilt again). "Entrapta is right, you know? What I had in the Horde was not more important than you."

"What about your family?"

Scorpia gave a shrug. "Well they're all dead. And if they weren't I was given to Hordak when I was a kid along with the Black Garnet, so I'm pretty sure you still win with terrible parents, but you get the point." And she said it so casually for someone who just described a shitshow of a childhood.

There were...no words.

"So what?" she asked, her voice bitter. "We're all just stuck here, playing tea party with the fucking Rebellion!"

"No," Entrapta answered. "Part of our agreement with Queen Angella was that you would have no obligation to stay."

"We may...uh...have lied and not mentioned your recent promotion," Scorpia added sheepishly. "Just to make sure. But yeah, you can leave at any time."

"Yeah, because Adora was _so_ happy to keep me away before."

Scorpia frowned. "Um, Adora is the reason we managed to convince the Queen. She actually threatened to quit if you were forced to stay. I'm not sure if its a 'don't want to be in the same building' thing or a respect thing but whatever."

And Catra wanted to laugh, because oh boy, Adora managed to play the actual fucking queen, because Adora never left a cause she believed in, and the Queen would have to slide very far before Adora would actually leave.

This was a fucking shitshow, and Catra didn't care if she was still recovering, because she couldn't stand the light or the pastels and these two idiots (stupid, reckless, loyal to a fault idiots who she refused to admit she'd miss) looking so happy that she was alive even after fucking themselves over or any of this shit for much longer.

"...Can I just be alone for a minute?" Catra asked, and Scorpia and Entrapta looked at each other knowingly.

"...Alright," Entrapta answered with a nod, before hugging Catra again. "I hope I'll see you again someday."

Scorpia wrapped them both in a tight hug, and Catra didn't squirm away, content for those few seconds before being released.

"Window's unlocked," Scorpia added cheerfully, and the two headed for the door.

"Guys?"

They looked at her.

"Is this really worth it?" Because she didn't get it. She absolutely didn't get it.

Scorpia laughed lightly. "With you alive? Absolutely." Entrapta gave a firm nod in agreement, and with that, the two princesses were gone, leaving Catra alone.

Within minutes, she was out the window.

* * *

There was Adora, sitting on the bridge that Catra was walking down.

"Heard you were awake," she remarked, not even bothering to turn around. "Well...more like I heard you shout earlier when you realized where you were. Figured you would try to leave as soon as possible."

"You planning on stopping me?" Catra asked. Her throat still hurt and she could tell she wasn't in the greatest shape, but she would fight her way out if she had to.

"Just wanted to talk," Adora answered. "And after that, you can do what you want."

And Catra wanted to spit out how there was nothing to talk about, but there were those feverish memories she had no context for (and some part of her was just rushing tumbling remembering and this was Adora and she was mad and anxious ~~and maybe, just maybe she missed her~~ ), and so she gave a dismissive shrug.

"Fine, but not here. Literally anywhere but here."

Adora nodded and stood. "To the woods then."

* * *

"So..." Catra began. "What did you want to talk about?"

"Just...stuff. I mean...there's a lot."

"Alright, then I'll start. How the fuck did you not get sick?"

"From the temple security systems?"

"Yeah, I know you came in contact with that stupid goop too. How are you just fine?"

Adora frowned. "I think it's the She-Ra thing, though Entrapta took a sample just in case. Without my permission, but she means well?"

Catra sighed. "Yeah, she did that with me. What the fuck exactly happened at the battle?"

"Well you passed out on top of Glimmer," Adora explained with a shrug. "She teleported you back to Bright Moon while I took Entrapta and Scorpia on Swift Wind to make sure they were close behind and could talk to Queen Angella as soon as possible. Then it was negotiations and watching over you while Entrapta worked on curing you. Once Scorpia and Queen Angella worked out the terms of her surrender, she was put under...what I could loosely call house arrest? Mostly so she could see you and stuff."

"Did Entrapta not surrender?" Catra asked, confused.

"It would have been political suicide to try Entrapta." Adora finally stopped walking, sitting at the base of a tree with her legs crossed. "The official explanation is that she was 'under duress' from Hordak, but she was completely pardoned, at the insistence of Perfuma and Mermista, though Glimmer had a big hand in that."

"...Lucky her," Catra muttered. "So what? Entrapta and I get off scot free and Scorpia is taking the fall for both of us?"

Adora frowned. "The only other option was to have you undergo trial too..."

"...I fucking hate this."

"Trust me, Scorpia's not going to be in any trouble. Pretty much everyone likes her already and Queen Angella is offering a lighter sentence considering the circumstances. You won't even have to fight against her because she didn't defect to our side." Like I did, Adora left unspoken.

Catra still wasn't pleased. Especially since she never fucking asked for Scorpia to surrender for her sake, or to do anything more than cover for her a little.

And speaking of...

"Did you make a deal with Shadow Weaver?"

Adora stiffened, and Catra scowled.

"Yeah, what the fuck did you do?"

There was a long moment of silence, and Catra looked up, about to insist, but Adora looked completely out of it, almost a million miles away. And then, she finally spoke.

"When you hit your head...no one was sure you'd be okay," Adora admitted. "They theorized that even if you woke up, you wouldn't be the same. They were going by assumptions made from non-you physiology of course, but still...at the time, most assumed you would have lasting brain damage. And Shadow Weaver...she never tolerated weakness much..."

And Catra couldn't help the shudder, even knowing that Shadow Weaver couldn't hurt her anymore, because just because Shadow Weaver was powerless didn't take away the sensation of red electricity painfully paralyzing her, or the visions of being swallowed up by shadows.

"She was going to kill me then," Catra remarked blandly. "And you had to be a white knight and protect me, because that  _always_ made things better. So you made a deal to save my life."

"...Not exactly. More like I told her something that was supposed to convince her keeping you alive was the best option and she decided to make the deal. I was not happy with it, but she refused to negotiate or anything. I either took her terms or she'd kill you right then and there, and you couldn't run away or fight back."

Catra growled. "That's Shadow Weaver alright. She's a manipulative little bitch and all I ever was was a nuisance to her. I'm so glad I took her down myself."

"You did?" Adora asked, blinking. "Huh...that's good. If anyone should have gotten to do that, it was definitely you."

"Great, glad we can still agree on something, now what was the fucking deal?"

Adora sighed, looking at the forest floor. "When she threatened you, I told her to leave you alone, and she told me that you were only holding me back. And preteen me just kind of had an epiphany there." She gave a bitter smile. "So I threatened Shadow Weaver, told her if you died, I would never try at anything again. I wouldn't train more than necessary, I would be the worst at simulators, everything. If you died, I was done. No more effort, no more success. And boy did she get pissed at that. But then she calmed down...and said fine, you would live, but I had to be the best of our team. If I ever failed, if I got second place or my time decreased or anything...I wasn't the one who would be punished..." Adora clenched her teeth. "I told her that wasn't what I wanted, that she should punish me for it instead of you, but she told me if I didn't take the offer then she had no choice but to kill you."

"So you took the deal."

"Yes," Adora admitted. "And honestly, that should have been the point where I decided the Horde was bad. It really should have been. But...I still bought into the indoctrination, just not into Shadow Weaver's claims to care about me beyond what I could do for her. So I stayed."

"And I got fucked over again," Catra muttered. "Great, just another example how you protecting me fucked me over. You do realize it never helped."

"...Yeah, I know."

She crossed her arms, glaring down at Adora. "And screw you. Because even after that you never even considered the Horde could be evil from the way I was treated, and you never even told me about a decision you made about my life."

"I'm sorry."

"Yeah? Well I don't forgive you."

"...Okay."

"...Then I guess we're done here." She turned, ready to head back to the Horde.

Alone. She was going to go back and be alone.

"Catra?" Adora asked.

She gave a hiss. "What do you want?"

"...I'm glad you're okay." Adora looked at her and gave a weak smile. "Even after everything, I do still care, even if you don't. I don't think I'll ever stop caring. Because...you were my best friend, and I was pretty shitty at it, and I'm sorry I let them get away with hurting you."

_I need you, Catra_

Something in Catra's chest clenched. It was...it was completely unfair. Catra was supposed to be done, she was supposed to be over this. Adora had been the one holding her back, she left her alone, and Catra was done worrying about her, or showing her any mercy, so why did she still care?

Catra had dug her claws into Adora's back without mercy, and yet here was Adora telling her that she cared still.

Fucking...

"Goodbye, Adora." And she ran, disappearing into the woods.

* * *

Adora sat there for a while, eventually hugging her knees to her chest and staring off in the direction Catra went.

She didn't let herself hope that she'd come back. She knew Catra wouldn't want to, that they would face each other in battle again and Catra would fight viciously. And Adora would fight back. Catra would kill Adora if she could, even if Adora would never be able to do the same.

She would have to accept that everything they once had together was gone.

With a flash of pink sparkles, Glimmer and Bow were now standing in front of her.

"You okay?" Glimmer asked.

"...No," she admitted hesitantly. Not long before she would have lied, said yes, because showing weakness was asking to get that weakness exploited, but she was learning bit by bit that some vulnerability was okay. "But...I will be."

She took Bow's hand and allowed him to help her up, and she relaxed into the hug her best friends gave her before Glimmer teleported them away.

She didn't notice Catra watching from a distant tree, her face contorted with grief.

* * *

"Bright Moon Log, Day 8. Perfuma and Mermista will be returning to Bright Moon in a few days, and Perfuma has asked that I visit Plumeria. Of course, I must finish investigating this sample first and Scorpia's trial is soon, but I think I might take up her offer.

"This blood sample was taken from Adora, also known as She-Ra, after learning she was exposed to sun fever in the same way Catra was. Strangely, she has exhibited no symptoms. Current hypothesis is that the runestone in her sword shut down the virus, but I need to run some tests to confirm.

"...Oh...

"...OH!

"Hypothesis incorrect! Or if it is correct it doesn't even matter! If this were code from the runestone then the virus would simply be remaining dormant, but instead proteins are binding to the virus, neutralizing it, and triggering phagocytosis! Doing tests with a sample from myself as a control showed the virus remained unchecked, and the same was shown with Glimmer, Bow, and several of the guards! But Adora's immune system actually has antibodies that target sun fever!

"This means...shit, this means...

"...I have to run a few more tests, this time on Adora's DNA. If my new hypothesis is correct...things just got _very interesting_."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Weird Tangent Alert:** I am...so annoyed that I can't use the word hell. It literally makes no sense to use a word like hell in the context of this planet with no equivalent to our earthly religions (same with karma tbh because that is a concept tied to a religion), and so I have to go with fuck but the word feels too harsh for the context of some of the conversations, like when Catra isn't nearly at the level of anger and frustration in some points that she is at others but it is hard to get that across in the wording. I need an expletive to replace hell that isn't as extra as fuck.
> 
> Sorry for that tangent.
> 
> Did anyone else feel a bit sad noticing the parent bots portrait Entrapta had?
> 
> Anyway, that was the deal Adora made with Shadow Weaver. Nobody was happy with it, and it screwed over everyone in the long run.
> 
> So this wasn't a redemption story, and there's a lot I didn't get into, and of course that ending...
> 
> ~~There may be some sequel ideas in the works~~
> 
> Phagocytosis sometimes occurs when antibodies bind to viruses. The antibody will basically release a chemical that says "hey I saved your life, you mind helping me out a bit?" to nearby cells and one of the cells is like "oh yeah thanks bro I got this" and eats the virus, destroying it.
> 
> Thank you guys for reading my first She-Ra story. I loved the show and I loved all the characters, and I can't wait to write more!
> 
> Later!


End file.
